Abstract
Based on eighteen months working in and training with halal certification businesses in Milan, this chapter explores the valuation of craft foods in global marketplaces, focusing on how halal certifiers engage with local foodways and, through this process, revalue Muslim religious rulings, bodies, and communities. In the field of economics, halal is often thought of as comprising a small collection of universal fixed standards; however, I show that the implementation of halal certification in non-Muslim-majority countries is an open-ended process. I focus on one of the largest halal certifiers in Europe, Halal Italia, to highlight a tension at play. Halal Italia is at the center of Islamic institution building in Italy. At the same time, some members of the broader Islamic community question Halal Italia’s authority to certify materials as halal because the religious institution behind Halal Italia is made up of Sufi converts to Islam. The chapter will highlight that, far from being a universal standard, halal is created in situ and is never a finished process but an avenue to make and remake Islam. The aim of this chapter is to go beyond considering halal to be merely an economic intervention and beyond seeing it as part of a culture of foodways. The aim is to delve into moments in which the halal certification process generates new kinds of persons, communities, and worlds.
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Notes
- 1.
The Halal Italia office where I worked was connected to the community prayer space, where Jumu’ah was held weekly.
- 2.
Dante and Frederick are important historical figures to the community as they represent the decline of Islam in Italy. The Norman Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250) was king of Sicily, and he kept the Fatimid Caliphate at bay. The Fatimids were a Shia Islamic empire that ruled Sicily as the Emirate of Sicily from 831–1091. In The Divine Comedy (1320), Dante Alighieri represents Ali and the Prophet Mohammed in the eighth of hell’s nine rings (sowers of discord). For Muslims in Italy, the late medieval period is thus marked as a point in which Christianity began to dominate Italy.
- 3.
Coreis is involved in seeking an Intesa, an official recognition of the Islam by the state. Other religions such as Mormonism have this distinction, which grants members of the religion certain rights including tax breaks and recognized places of worship. Due to the population’s diversity, Muslim leaders have been unsuccessful in finalizing an Intesa agreement.
- 4.
A different movement from that founded in nineteenth-century British India by the same name.
- 5.
A formal authorization granting its bearer the ability to transmit Islamic religious teachings.
- 6.
This organization now directs the Roman mosque, which was built much later, in 1994.
- 7.
“Muslims pray at Colosseum, protesting against Rome mosque closures,” 21 October 2016. https://www.reuters.com/article/cnews-us-italy-mosques-idCAKCN12L2AU. Accessed 26 July 2022.
- 8.
For Coreis, this was also an important step in their fight to make Islam an officially recognized religion in Italy.
- 9.
The major difference between Jewish ritual slaughter (shechita) and Islamic ritual slaughter (dabihah) is principally that Jewish slaughter blesses the production area, while the blessing much be spoken over each animal in Islamic ritual slaughter.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank and acknowledge the staff at Halal Italia for sharing their time and friendship with me. For many helpful insights, I thank John Bowen, Krause, Glenn Stone, and the editors of this volume. Research was supported by the Washington University in St. Louis Graduate School, The Department of Anthropology, and The Divided City Initiative.
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I would like to thank and acknowledge the staff at Halal Italia for sharing their time and friendship with me. For many helpful insights, I thank John Bowen, Elizabeth Krause, and Glenn Stone. I would also like to extend thanks to the editors of this volume, Rano Turaeva and Michael Brose, for their help in developing this chapter. Research was supported by the Washington University in St. Louis Graduate School, The Department of Anthropology, and The Divided City Initiative.
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Crossland-Marr, L. (2023). Building Halal in Italy: The Case of Halal Italia. In: Turaeva, R., Brose, M. (eds) Religious Economies in Secular Context. New Directions in Islam. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18603-5_3
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